July 3, 2012 7:57pm EDTJuly 3, 2012 5:10pm EDTWhile Zach Parise and Ryan Suter remain undecided on their destinations in free agency, keeping the rest of the NHL in a holding pattern, the Detroit Red Wings made news with a takeoff and landing on Tuesday.

While Zach Parise and Ryan Suter remain undecided on their destinations in free agency, keeping the rest of the NHL in a holding pattern, the Detroit Red Wings made news with a takeoff and landing on Tuesday.

Ansar Khan of MLive.com reported that a plane owned by Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch made a flight to Madison, Wis., where Suter lives in the offseason. Unless Ilitch was checking out new cheese options for his Little Caesars pizza chain, the most likely reason for the trip was recruiting the defenseman to take the top-pair defense spot in Detroit vacated by the retirement of future Hall of Famer Nicklas Lidstrom.

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That does appear to be what happened, as Helene St. James from the Detroit Free Press reported that Red Wings general manager Ken Holland made the trip to Badger country to present Suter with a 13-year, $90 million offer. At $6.92 million per year, the only defensemen in the league with higher salary cap hits than Suter, were he to accept the offer, would be Brian Campbell of the Florida Panthers and Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings.

Suter has to consider whether he would want the pressure that would come with trying to fill Lidstrom’s skates, as well as whether he wants to leave the Predators for a division rival after spending his entire career in Nashville.

“For a young man who is looking to commit to 13 years, I find it strange that people expect him to make a decision within hours or days,” Suter’s agent, Neil Sheehy, told the Free Press. “Everything needs to be carefully considered. Today is another day—really there is nothing else I can say.”

Sheehy did say, however, to USA Today that no deal would come Tuesday.

The Red Wings and Predators are not the only teams involved in the chase for Suter’s signature on the dotted line, with the Minnesota Wild, Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins heavily rumored to be involved.

Suter’s careful consideration of his future has brought major movement on the market for defensemen to a halt, just as Parise’s patient free-agent courting period has done with forwards. Free agents such as Matt Carle and Alexander Semin figure to find their best deals after Suter and Parise are signed, as they would be attractive fallback options, while trade candidates such as Rick Nash and Bobby Ryan also figure to wind up with teams that lose out on the top free agents.